Mega Man X4
Routes 'Zero' '100%, current route' #Magma Dragoon #Cyber Peacock #Split Mushroom You can also do Jet Stingray first. While this makes the boss fight slightly more difficult, it puts a major RNG point at the beginning of the run, allowing for more efficient resets. After Split Mushroom, the order of the next five stages doesn't really matter too much. All that matters is that Jet Stingray is done before Web Spider and that Slash beast is done before Frost Walrus. Most runners like to put Web Spider as early possible for RNG (luck) purposes. Here are some common route for the last five mavericks: 1. # Jet Stingray # Web Spider # Storm Owl # Slash Beast # Frost Walrus 2. # Jet Stingray # Storm Owl # Slash Beast # Frost Walrus # Web Spider 3. # Jet Stingray # Storm Owl # Web Spider # Slash Beast # Frost Walrus 'Any%, current route' Less commonly ran category, but the route is basically the same. The only difference being that Frost Walrus should be done either second or third in the route. 'Low%, current route' Exact same route as Any% but no items are to be obtained. 'X' '100%, current route' The purpose of this route is to have as few revisits as possible, along with getting the Body Part (for Nova Strike) as early as possible before Split Mushroom so that you can do the miniboss skip more easily. This route also gets the Stock Arm Part rather early which makes some Maverick fights much faster. # Magma Dragoon # Web Spider # Storm Owl # Frost Walrus # Jet Stingray # Slash Beast # Revisit Magma Dragoon for Body Part and heart # Split Mushroom # Cyber Peacock '100%, old route' This route does not get the Body or Stock Arm Parts until all eight Mavericks have been defeated, which drastically lowers your damage output. However, it removes the randomness of the Storm Owl fight. #Magma Dragoon #Web Spider #Frost Walrus #Jet Stingray #Slash Beast #Split Mushroom #Cyber Peacock #Storm Owl #Revisit Magma Dragoon for Body Part and heart 'Low%' No hearts, E/W/Ex-Tanks, or any piece of armor. This category is more challenging than the standard X category, 100%. You may not even be able to finish the final Sigma fight due to only being able to (safely) hit Face Sigma when he does his gust attack. The most popular route for low% is identical to the former 100% route with the only differences being altered strategies for the lack of armor/health, and no need to hunt for items or revisit stages. # Magma Dragoon # Web Spider # Frost Walrus # Jet Stingray # Slash Beast # Split Mushroom # Cyber Peacock # Storm Owl 'Ultimate Armor (UA)' X4 introduces the Ultimate Armor, which is the standard "Forth Armor" that allows you to use Nova Strikes infinitely. To obtain the Ultimate Armor, you have to enter a code. At the character select screen, highlight X and: * PlayStation: press Circle twice, Left 6 times, then hold L'1' and R'2' until the first dialogue box. * Saturn: press B twice, Left 6 times, then hold L and R until the first dialogue box. If the code is entered correctly, X will have a light purple secondary color rather than light blue. From this point, going to any armor capsule will grant the Ultimate Armor. 'Any%' An exact route for UA Any% doesn't matter as long as the following conditions are met: # Web Spider is first (shortest distance to a capsule to get the UA) # Magma Dragoon is done before Split Mushroom (for an advanced strategy called "Tower Climb") # Cyber Peacock is done before Storm Owl (for shield break, see "Techniques" below) # Frost Walrus is done before the first Colonel fight (for an easy setup on multi-hit Nova Strike) '100%' # Cyber Peacock # Magma Dragoon After Magma Dragoon, the Mavericks can be defeated in any order. Boss Damage Table Notes (X): *For X-Buster, the first number is damage done with standard, uncharged shots; the second is damage done when the weapon is charged a bit; third number is damage done when it is fully charged. **A fully-charged X-Buster shot does the same damage in all of its forms (normal Charge Shot, Stock Shot, and Plasma Shot). **Any subsequent damage inflicted after the Plasma Shot's initial blast is 1 unit per hit. *For the eight Special Weapons, the first number is damage done when the weapon is used in normal fire; the second is when the weapon is used in its charged state. *For Special Weapons that are capable of striking more than once, damage values on this chart are listed according to how much a weapon inflicts per hit, not the total amount of damage done. *For Soul Body, the first number is damage done with the hologram, and the second number is damage inflicted with the buster shots fired from the solid hologram; the solid hologram itself cannot inflict damage to bosses. *For Tentoroid, it takes 9 units of damage when locked-on from an uncharged Aiming Laser, provided that X doesn't get hit while using it. Minimum damage is 1 unit per hit. When charged, the minimum damage is 2 units per hit. *For Generaid Core, it can take up to 9 units of damage when locked-on from an uncharged Aiming Laser, depending on when the weapon was fired and when the boss becomes vulnerable. Minimum damage is 1 unit per hit. When charged, the minimum damage is 8 units per hit. *For Storm Owl, he takes 9 units of damage when locked-on from an uncharged Aiming Laser. When charged, he can take up to 12 units of damage, depending on when the weapon was fired and the position of Storm Owl himself. Minimum damage is 1 unit per hit for both versions of Aiming Laser. *For Magma Dragoon, when riding on the Ride Armor in his stage, it is possible to bring the Ride Armor for the battle against him. The drilling stab inflicts 1 unit of damage against Dragoon; the overhead slash, jump slash, dash, and charge lance thrust all inflict 2 units of damage. *For Web Spider, hitting him directly with a normal Twin Slasher will only inflict 2 units of damage against him, and four units if Twin Slasher is charged. If Twin Slasher is used on the electric web that supports him, it will be cut, causing him to fall and take four units of damage twice for a total of 8 units of damage inflicted -- this method inflicts the same amount of damage regardless of which version of Twin Slasher is used. *For Colonel, damage values are exactly identical for both battles against him. *Credit goes to Twilight Man from MMKB for damage values. Notes (Zero): *Once Kuuenzan and Kuuenbu have been learned, it will replace Zero's mid-air slash for the remainder of the game -- the player will be unable to inflict damage with this method against Colonel, Iris, General, and all of Sigma's forms. **For this reason, damage values for the mid-air slash against the eight Mavericks were obtained when Split Mushroom has been fought last. *Minibosses such as Tentoroid and DG-42L do not have an invincibility period when struck, so Zero's slashes/techniques can deal a tremendous amount of damage as most of them can inflict multiple hits. *Strangely, the third slash of Zero's Z-Saber combo inflicts less damage on Eyezard than with the first two. *For Storm Owl, using Rakuhouha against him deals 2 units of damage for each energy bolt that hits him. *Credit goes to Twilight Man from MMKB for damage values. Techniques 'Saber Dash Cancel (SDC)' On the PS controller, with default settings, swing the saber with square and use circle to cancel the swing; then press square to swing again. 'Double Saber Dash Cancel (SSDC)' Cancels the second hit of Zero's saber combo with a dash before repeating the combo. While almost all enemies in the game take the same amount of damage from the second hit, most structures (such as the large wall in the intro stage), as well as Ugly Face Sigma, take increased damage from the second hit. 'Quick General Kill (Zero)' General takes damage every frame from Zero's saber. It is possible to kill General very quickly by climbing up his fists and slowly SDCing his head. '"Shield Break" on Storm Owl (X)' There is a moment in Storm Owl's fight where he will have no invulnerability frames, but only if he uses his attack where he releases four Cyclones into certain positions then has them attack X and if you manage to hit Owl before a certain animation. This is known as "Shield Break." Storm Owl will shoot four cyclones at a certain moment of the battle. After the last one he will make them go where X is. Before he launches the Cyclones, he will do a few animations that last only a few frames each before throwing his hands up. If he's shot at any moment before the animation where he throws his hands up, he'll have no invulnerability frames when he does throw his hands up so you can continuously damage Owl without invulnerability frames for, at most, 59 frames (one frame less than a second). This can damage Owl for anything between half to more than three-quarters of his health, depending on weapon used (Stock shot or Plasma shot) and player skill. The way this works is that the animation where Owl throws his hands up causes any invulnerability frames to be negated and will not work until they wear off. He can be shot any time before he does that animation and you'll still achieve shield break so long as he has invulnerability frames when he does that animation. When the invulnerability frames wears off, he will have his shield again. The easiest way is using the Plasma shot which can easily go through his cyclones, also it'll keep doing damage automatically. It's also possible with the Stock charge shot but it needs a good timing and, ideally, a pattern that doesn't guard him with a Cyclone (You can still do this trick if he guards himself with a Cyclone, but it requires you to damage-boost off the Cyclone then time the first shot perfectly. Even if this is done correctly, it will only do about one-third of his health in this situation). Another way, but the least effective, is shooting uncharged shots. A combination of one of the first two and the last one works best. This also occurs with the Aiming Laser and the Nova Strike. This is much easier to perform, gives more damage but it's only reasonable to do during the boss rush since Storm Owl's stage has the arm upgrade which is needed for the body upgrade - the Nova Strike. With this method, you want to hit Owl with Aiming Laser first then use Nova Strike right before Owl gets out of stun frames. Once Owl is out of stun frames, he'll have no invulnerability frames associated with Nova Strike hitting him so he'll take multiple Nova Strike hits rapidly. Depending on which direction he flies off after his stun frames and depending on the direction you use Nova Strike, this method can do anywhere from one-half - if the direction he flies is opposite of the direction of your Nova - to four-fifths - if the direction he flies is the same as the direction of your Nova - of his health. 'Miniboss Skip (Split Mushroom, X only)' The requirements for the quickest method of this skip are the arm upgrade, Rising Fire and Nova Strike (body armor upgrade). This skip avoids the trigger that locks the camera in place and forces you into the miniboss fight. In the picture below, the red line shows approximately where the camera lock happens. To do this skip, charge up Rising Fire, jump (do not dash-jump) off the sloped platform behind the floating platforms, release the charged Rising Fire, then Nova Strike. If done correctly, the miniboss will appear, but the camera will not pan over to the center of the platforms, allowing you to move over to the area exit, skipping the miniboss fight. There are a few alternative methods to this skip: * Lightning Web can be used to gain height instead of charged Rising Fire. Simply shoot a Web at the end of the sloped platform to gain height then Nova Strike over the camera-lock trigger. This method is useful if you happen to run out of Rising Fire in the room before the miniboss room. * If you are using the former route, which would not have Nova Strike at this point, you can use Lightning Web in place of charged Rising Fire and instead of using Nova Strike, you air dash over the camera-lock trigger. However, this method has a much smaller window for success than the first method listed. '"Shield Break" on Web Spider' Similar to Owl's "Shield Break," hitting Web Spider in a certain way will cause him to lose all invulnerability frames for a few seconds which can allow you to do massive damage to him in a short period of time. This technique can be done as either X or Zero. However, for X, it's only a really viable trick in the refight of Spider due to how precise it is with just Buster. To do the Shield Break on Spider, you have to hit him just before he goes off screen into the trees - he should be flashing in his invulnerability frames as he disappears. While he is still in the trees he will not have any invulnerability frames until he appears on screen again. As X, the easiest way to do the Shield Break in the refights is to hit Spider with a charged Twin Slasher just after he shoots a web then wall climb and Nova Strike into the trees after he disappears (Note: May need to adjust timing of Twin Slasher depending on how far down Spider is on screen when he shoots his web). Depending on where Spider teleports, you can do anywhere from one-eighth of his health (if you're unlucky) to three-quarters of his health. You can completely skip the second phase of Spider by doing this method if you set everything up correctly and time it properly. Note: If Twin Slasher (or whatever attack you used to trigger invulnerability frames) causes Spider to go down to half of his health as he disappears off screen, the second phase of Spider will activate and you will not be able to Shield Break him with Nova Strike. The Shield Break is much simpler as Zero as it only requires Kuenbuu, the attack that causes Zero to spin in the air, and preferably double-jump. Simply hit Spider as he's going up then use Kuenbuu to do multiple hits on Spider while he is in the trees. However, because the position where Spider goes is random, you might not always get the Shield Break as Zero. This can reasonably be done in both fights as Zero, as long as the boss cooperates. 'Multiple Hits on Colonel' In both fights with Colonel, his invincibility frames reset every time his animation changes. This allows for multiple hits with a single attack. This can be done fairly easily with Frost Tower/Nova Strike (as X) or with Hyouretsuzan (with Zero). Loading time differences with X Collection XC is known for having no lag in the SNES remakes and really low loading times in the PS1 remakes. The X4 version has more or less 56 loading screens which last a variety of seconds from 1.5 to 3.5. On the other had, the XC version's are more uniform lasting in average 1.2275 seconds, so that might produce a big time difference from version to version. After measuring loading times from the PS1 version from different places in the game, for example before the boss presentation, before the level, in between the areas, after the boss fight and after the weapon screen, and multiplying them by how many times they appear in the game, the total amount of time loss in loading screen calculated is 126.25 seconds (2.25 seconds in average per loading screen). In the XC version that amount is around 68.74 seconds. Assuming those calculations are exact and there's no other time difference between both versions, the XC version is faster than the PlayStation by 57.51 seconds which can be rounded to a minute. Still this isn't precise since loading times from different consoles may slightly vary. NOTE: It's been found that the load times between the PS2 version and GC version of XC are much different with the GC version having much faster load times. The exact time difference, however, has not been found. It has also been found that the load times on a PS2 console and a PS2 emulator are much different, with the PS2 emulator being closer to the GC version when it comes to load times. No differences have been found between load times on a GC console and GC emulator. Other differences with X Collection Aside from the load times, there aren't many differences between the X Collection versions and the original versions of MMX4. However, there are a few differences that must be pointed out: 'Both versions' * The hostile gun ships (the blue ships) in Storm Owl's stage have no hitboxes while riding in the mech-suit so you simply go right through the ships while in the mech-suit. The gun ships that are used as platforms and don't attack, however, are perfectly fine. * The final Sigma theme starts the moment final Sigma appears on screen rather than after a textbox and audio dialogue. It resets itself after the dialogue is over 'GC' * To extend on final Sigma: Sigma will randomly not play an audio dialogue after the textbox and will go straight into the fight. It is not known what causes this. * Cutscenes will sometimes not skip for up to 2 seconds. (Any cutscene in the game has a chance this to occur on.) 'PS2' * To extend on final Sigma: Sigma will never play an audio dialogue after the textbox and will go straight into the fight. * Slash Beast's AI will sometimes bug out and he will simply roar at you multiple times in a row (known as the "Roar Glitch"). Due to the lack of audio dialogues on final Sigma (which removes roughly 3-5 seconds) and the Roar Glitch, which gives an incredible advantage for PS2 Zero runners, along with the fact that PS2 emulators have load times nearly equivalent to the GC X Collection version, the community has agreed to separate X4 into the original versions - PSX, Sega Saturn, PC - and the X Collection versions. Mega Man X4 vs. Rockman X4 Regional versions of a game can have anything from different text speeds or less text, to region-exclusive mechanics or glitches. The Japanese versions of X4 just have dialogue differences. 'Boss Dialogue' In Rockman X4, the eight Mavericks have something to say between the text dialogue and the actual fight, much like the fortress Mavericks. They even say it before the refights (where there's no text). They never say anything in Mega Man X4, which cuts down a few seconds for each of the sixteen fights. On the other hand, in Mega Man X4, the fortress bosses have a number of voice clips with varying lengths. A rough guess would be that Rockman X4 adds around 29-36 seconds, depending on factor #2. 'Textboxes' Japanese games tend to be faster than their English counterparts because the Japanese language is much more compact, so you can fit more in a single box. Rockman X4 is not an exception. Unfortunately, we only have data for X 100% at the moment. 'X 100%' * Rockman X4 - 228 textboxes by English RTA timing standards; 234 textboxes by Japanese RTA timing standards * Mega Man X4 - 291 textboxes by English RTA timing standards; number not available for Japanese RTA timing standards Total difference in number of textboxes: 63 Textboxes take at least five frames to mash through (one frame for text, four frames of empty box before the next text appears), so Rockman X4 saves at least 315 frames (5.25 seconds) in skipping textboxes. 'Total Time Difference' Again, Rockman X4 adds about 32 seconds due to boss dialogue, but saves about 5 seconds due to textboxes. In the end, you can assume that playing Mega Man X4 will save you roughly 30 seconds over playing Rockman X4.